I feel honored being able to write for Blackhawks Down Low, if only for today. So I’ve been given quite a large task, although I think I can pull it off. Andrew has asked me to inform the Blackhawks fan base the reasons to hate the Buffalo Sabres. Well I hope you have a good pint of ale, a comfy place to rest your ass and some time because this may take a little while. The reason being is that it’s so easy to hate the Buffalo Sabres. My brain is running at 6000 RPM’s right now just trying to figure out where to start, but I guess if you’re going to start anywhere, you start with the “face of the franchise”.

Reason #1 To Hate The Buffalo Sabres: Ryan Miller

I’ve never seen such a fall from grace happen in the short span of two years. In 2010, Ryan Miller led the Americans to the gold medal game in the 2010 Olympics. Everyone in the United States loved Ryan Miller. He was like apple pie, fire works, liberty, freedom, small puppies and Hulk Hogan all rolled into one. The last America was this proud of someone, George Washington had his foot atop a boat heading down a river. He was the bee’s knees and although the Americans lost in overtime, it was okay. It wasn’t Ryan Miller’s fault that Sidney Crosby is a pretty good hockey player.

Lets jump to the 2010-2011 season. Ryan Miller is still considered to be a great goaltender, although the stats aren’t beginning to support his claim. Out of 87 goalies who could register a GAA, Miller was 37th overall with a GAA of 2.59. His save percentage was a little better, registering at 32nd overall at .916. Where did the Sabres end up at the end of the year in 2010-2011? They lost in 7 games to Philadelphia and hit up the buffalo wings place by Sunday. The series was pretty good though, so many thought that Miller and the Sabres were about to turn it around and become a formidable opponent in the Eastern Conference, let a lone the Northeast Division.

Then “the hit” happened.

I would like to apologize ahead of time that you have to listen to Rick Jeanneret, who makes Jack Edwards sound like a master at his craft.

Oh God, the hit. Okay, so Milan Lucic blatantly runs over Ryan Miller. I’m not going to deny it and I didn’t deny it when it first happened. He plowed into him. He ran him over. Miller tries to take a huge swipe at Lucic’s legs and misses, then he lays on the ice like he’s been shot. Then he plays another period and a half. Then he leaves with a “concussion”. No quiet room, no eye checks, no little flashlight in the face, nothing. After the incident, the concussed superstar goalie had this to say:

Hey, that’s fine by me. I’d be pissed too if some dude ran me down like I was the frog from Frogger. Here’s the issue with the whole thing. Miller supposedly had a concussion without proper protocol being done. Like I mentioned, none of that quiet room bullshit. Then, after Milan Lucic hangs out with Brendan Shanahan for a little bit and doesn’t get suspended, Miller changes his mind on his concussion.

“I feel good symptom-wise,” Miller said after practice, according to The Buffalo News. “It was more neck and something where I aggravated a disc in my neck pretty good and we had an MRI and CT scan showing that which kind of backed that up and was the source of a lot of the tension and a lot of the discomfort. It definitely was limiting my range of motion. “I don’t know for certain what it was,” Miller added. “It definitely felt … I took a good impact and definitely felt that way [that it was a concussion] but I also had some symptoms in my neck and that was proven through some tests.”

“That’s not my decision. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen in the locker room. If you guys really think there’s going to be any kind of trade made anywhere that’s going to affect this team any more than we can affect it in this locker room, you guys are just … I don’t know what to think, because there’s no such trade. “There’s not ever going to be a trade in the history of the NHL that’s going to affect anything like that. There’s no chance anybody comes into this team and just shakes it up or we can even move multiple players and get any kind of return … If you want to just destroy a team and just go out and be reckless and do something, yeah. “But then there’s going to be new guys in here, but other than that, this locker room’s going to be pretty much the same, if not completely the same, and we’ve got to find it from in here. [Points to chest] We can’t sit and wait for somebody else to f–king do it.”

In his own words: “What a piece of shit”.

Reason #2 To Hate The Buffalo Sabres: Patrick Kaleta

Kaleta is Buffalo’s version of the “goon” player, but he does a shitty job at it. To Kaleta’s credit, he’s a shit disturber. He’ll pick his spots to start things, but he never backs them up. He chirps when the refs are in between people. He takes cheap and dirty shots. He headbutts people. When Kaleta does try to be a tough guy, he is shown why he’s a piece of shit.

Reason #3 To Hate The Buffalo Sabres: Lindy Ruff

I fucking hate Lindy Ruff. Lets start with the aforementioned Ryan Miller hit. Here’s what he had to say on it.

“I turn on TSN this morning and the goalies getting bumped almost falls in that open season category,” Ruff said, referring to the phrase he used when Ryan Miller got drilled by Milan Lucic. “… We’re in dangerous territory with some of that stuff.”

“I’m not going to comment what I had on my mind.” After pausing, Ruff added: “Go out and run ‘em.”

That’s just the tip of the iceberg with Ruff. When the Sabres played the Bruins in the 2009-2010 playoffs, Ruff complained about the referees after every game. In fact, it seems that all he does is cry and whine about something. I mean, he does it so much that we at Days of Y’Orr constantlymakephotoshops of himcrying. Constantly. It’s maddening to think that a coach who is the NHL’s longest tenured coach can do so without actually winning anything. Then again, it’s also Buffalo so anything is possible.

There’s three good reasons why you should hate the Buffalo Sabres. In all honesty, I could go into how pathetic and entitled the fan base is. I could go into how shitty the actual city is. What’s the point? These things are already known. Shawn Thornton was asked if he liked playing in the city of Buffalo and what he thought of it. He waited a moment and said “Well it’s not the prettiest city out there” and he’s right. It’s an ugly mess. It’s such a mess that their own football team that’s been there for decades would rather move to Canada.

I hope I did this some justice and I’ve given you enough reason to hate the Sabres, or at least dislike them a lot. If not, I’m sure you can search LiveJournal for Ryan Miller’s diary and see the true piece of shit he is.